Conventionally, such steam iron has a plurality of steam holes arranged in a line along an approximately U-shaped area on its soleplate (see, e.g., Japanese Utility Model Publication No. S48-28073).
The following is a mechanism of removing wrinkles by ironing clothes. Fibers of clothes are swelled by heat and moisture of steam ejected through the steam holes on the soleplate. Accordingly, transformed portions of the fibers, i.e., wrinkles in the clothes, are softened and then immediately dried along a plane of the soleplate by heat and surface pressure thereof, thereby removing the wrinkles. However, the conventional configuration has a drawback in that wrinkles in clothes cannot be effectively removed when clothes are not sufficiently steamed with the ejected steam.